The Right Reverend James Black (born 25 June 1894,

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– died 29 March 1968,

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) was the first

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of Paisley in Scotland.

Early life

Black spent the first years of his life in the Calton district of Glasgow before his family moved to Tollcross where he received his primary education at St Joseph's school. His secondary education was at St Aloysius' College, an establishment administered by the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

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in the city centre, where he won the Stewart Bursary in the 1912

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

bursary competition and matriculated in the

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in October of that year. However, the following year he left university to study for the priesthood at St Peter's College,

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Military service

In April 1917, along with several of his fellow students, he left the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

to enlist in the

Royal Munster Fusiliers The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1922. It traced its origins to the East India Company, East India Company's Bengal European Regiment raised in 1652, which later became the 101st Regiment ...

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in County ...

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. In February 1918 he was deployed to France and saw action at the

Second Battle of the Somme The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to th ...

. On 31 March 1918, he was severely wounded by

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fire and it was feared that he might lose a leg. However he recovered sufficiently from his wounds and was discharged from the army on medical grounds in December 1918.

Priesthood

In January 1919 he resumed his studies at St Peter's and was subsequently ordained to the priesthood at St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow by Bishop James McCarthy of

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on 27 June 1920. James Black's first appointment was to the church of St Patrick in

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...

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where he remained until October 1931 when he was transferred to St Peter's in

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. In January 1939 he was made

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Our Lady and St John's in Blackwood, Lanarkshire. Thereafter, in June 1941, he was removed to St Charles Borromeo parish in Paisley where his tenure was a brief six months before being appointed as

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

to Notre Dame College for the training of teachers in Glasgow where, in addition to his pastoral duties, he also taught history and ethics. On 11 May 1947, following the death of

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Daly, Father Black was made

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of the

Archdiocese of Glasgow The Archdiocese of Glasgow was one of the thirteen (after 1633 fourteen) dioceses of the Scottish church. It was the second largest diocese in the Kingdom of Scotland, including Clydesdale, Teviotdale, parts of Tweeddale, Liddesdale, Annanda ...

Episcopate

Upon the establishment of the new

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of Paisley, Monsignor James Black was appointed as its first

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

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on 28 February 1948 and was consecrated by Archbishop

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St Mirin's Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Mirin in Paisley, dedicated to Saint Mirin the patron saint of Paisley, is the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Paisley and is the seat of the Bishop of Paisley. History The former parish church of St Mirin ...

on 14 April of the same year. During his twenty-year

episcopate A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Bishop Black created eleven

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es and oversaw the building of nine new churches. In this same era three religious congregations came to the diocese and the National Junior Seminary was founded at St Vincent's in

Langbank Langbank is a village on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is 9.3 miles/15 km northwest from Paisley (Renfrewshire) and 3.4 miles/5.5 km east from Port Glasgow (Inverclyde) on the A8. History Langbank ev ...

in 1961. He attended all the plenary sessions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

(1962–65) and began implementation of the conciliar and post-conciliar decrees. The last few years of Bishop Black's episcopate were dogged by ill health and, in March 1968, after some months of confinement, he died in office at age 73 in

. Black's

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was in

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''Promesse Magis Quam Praeesse'' (''To follow is greater than to lead'').

Sources

* * ''The Catholic Directory for Scotland'' 1969 (Glasgow, 1969) * Darragh, James ''The Catholic Hierarchy of Scotland'' (Glasgow, 1986) {{DEFAULTSORT:Black, James (bishop) 1894 births 1968 deaths Participants in the Second Vatican Council People from Calton 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Scotland Roman Catholic bishops of Paisley Royal Munster Fusiliers soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Alumni of the University of Glasgow People educated at St Aloysius' College, Glasgow Scottish Roman Catholic bishops